“Martyrdom: a Matter of Memory and a Reality for Christians” is the title of one of the 24 round tables of the international meeting "Paths of Peace" organised by the Community of Sant’Egidio in Münster, Germany.
Bishop Epiphanios of the Coptic Orthodox Church has recalled the Egyptian christian martyrs, victims of assaults and terrorism. "Our church has set up a special memory day for the martyrs at the occasion of the anniversary of the labourers murdered by Isis in Libya, whose throats were cut at the beach of Sirte in February 2015." To bishop Epiphanios the great challenge is to prevent the memory being transformed into hatred: "In the Scriptures we read this call: Do not curse, but bless those who persecute.
According to bishop Gennadij of the Patriachate of Moscow, the memory of the martyrs of the Soviet period should urge the christians to a "mayor solidarity in front of all those who are the victims of persecutions". "In today's world every fourth Christian is being discriminated because of his or her religion - he added - and Christians die every day because of their faith."
Hovakim Manukyan, Armenian-orthodox bishop in Great Brittain, remembered the christian victims of the Armenian Genocide, more than one and a half million: "This memory invites us to mistrust manipulation of religions by politics".
The panel ended with the touching testimony of Karl-Adolf Schneider, son of the Lutheran priest Paul, who was murderd in 1939 by the Nazis in the concentration camp Buchenwald. "His legacy asks us to take a stand in a time in which the arms race resumes and war and suffering force people to flee as refugees and live in camps." "In face of this, my father would not have kept quiet", he concluded his speech. |